Latest News from Maureen O'Garahttp://maureenogara.sys-con.com/
Latest News from Maureen O'GaraenCopyright 2015 Ulitzer.comUlitzer.comTue, 03 Mar 2015 15:18:09 ESThttp://backend.userland.com/rss360IBM & SoftLayer Get to Poke AWS in the Eyehttp://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2750897
Amazon Web Services has lost a nice piece of glory business to SoftLayer, the public cloud company IBM just paid an estimated $2 billion to buy reportedly for the pleasure of poking AWS in the eye.
Big Blue just got that distinct pleasure, heightened by the fact that it’s making a nice chunk of change off the deal.
Here’s what happened.
Amazon was supposed to host the first cloud-based DARPA Virtual Robotics Challenge (VRC). The idea was for some of the world’s best engineers to develop their software in a virtual simulation, a challenge in itself, before getting to the actual robot phase of the competition.
Well, after initially using AWS, the Open Source Robotics Foundation (OSRF), which runs the annual competition, ran into trouble with the speed of Amazon’s server communication. So it switched to SoftLayer’s bare metal platform, which was reportedly the only one it could find that could shorten communication loops between machines to 1k/second.
SoftLayer offered the power and speed needed, as well as the raw compute, without any extra virtualization. <p><a href="http://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2750897" target="_blank">read more</a></p>Fri, 02 Aug 2013 08:00:00 EDThttp://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2750897http://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2750897#feedbackNew Wrinkle Reportedly Emerges in Dell Imbrogliohttp://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2750919
Let’s see, where were we?
Oh, yes, Dell’s special committee had rejected a sweetened offer of $13.75 a share because it didn’t want to throw out the shares sitting on the fence that didn’t vote “yes” or “no” on the buy-out offer to take the company private, leaving it looking likely that the original deal for $13.65 a share will go down to defeat Friday if in fact the committee tallies the votes then as it’s said it will.
Even Silver Lake, the private equity house in league with Michael Dell, reportedly thinks the deal will collapse.
Anyway, late Wednesday Reuters reported that some of Dell’s largest investors who have abstained from voting have had a change of heart – perhaps because Dell’s stock price is sinking – and would be willing to take the $13.75 a share the committee rejected with the amended record date on who exactly can vote like the committee suggested. <p><a href="http://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2750919" target="_blank">read more</a></p>Thu, 01 Aug 2013 09:46:00 EDThttp://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2750919http://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2750919#feedbackDell’s Sweetener Isn’t Sweet Enoughhttp://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2750223
The Dell board’s special committee has rejected Michael Dell and Silver Lake Partners offer to pay $13.75 a share for the company in exchange for not counting shares that don’t vote one way or the other on the buy-out as being against it.
In a letter to Michael Dell and Silver Lake made public in an SEC filing Wednesday, the special committee offered to change the date establishing who was eligible to vote at all if Michael Dell and Silver Lake were still willing to pay $13.75. Otherwise it’s planning on tabulating the vote on Friday on the original terms of $13.65 a share that the board accepted back in February.
The committee did not say why exactly it was refusing to change the voting rules originally agreed to but it doubtless has something to do with an abundance of caution about lawsuits.
It can only be speculated what the committee would have done if Michael Dell and Silver Lake hit the magic number of $14 a share that it was reportedly angling for. <p><a href="http://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2750223" target="_blank">read more</a></p>Thu, 01 Aug 2013 07:00:00 EDThttp://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2750223http://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2750223#feedbackEx-Mozilla CEO To Run AVGhttp://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2749537
Gary Kovacs, who said in April he was stepping down as CEO of Mozilla to find something “more commercial,” has turned up as CEO of publicly held Internet and mobile security software house AVG Technologies NV, based in Amsterdam and San Francisco.
AVG has upwards of 150 million users globally, 25% of whom use its mobile widgetry like its free anti-virus for Android. It sees its future in future.
In a canned statement Kovacs said, “We know that there are over two and a half billion people online and we anticipate another two and a half billion people coming online in the next five years. With all these people online there is going to be an increasing urgency to secure them.”
Kovacs was at Mozilla for about two years after working at Sybase and Adobe and was behind the development of the newfangled Firefox OS, an HTML5-dependent mobile operating system due to launch on entry-level phones next year intending to disrupt any low-end ambitions iOS, Android and Windows Phone may have in emerging markets.
His AVG appointment still has to be approved by the company’s stockholders.
<p><a href="http://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2749537" target="_blank">read more</a></p>Wed, 31 Jul 2013 08:00:00 EDThttp://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2749537http://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2749537#feedbackIcahn Lashes Out at Dell Board & Dell Himselfhttp://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2748688
After joining with Southeastern Asset Management in signing an open letter to Dell’s special board committee – which is wrestling with Michael Dell’s offer to pay $13.75 a share, 10 cents more a share, to change how the stockholders vote on his leverage buy-out offer is counted – telling the special committee he expected them to tell Michael Dell “no” – activist investor Carl Icahn wrote another open letter to Dell shareholders characterizing Michael Dell as a “whining” “sore loser” and major corporate “liability” and castigating the Dell board for “making a mockery of what little is left of corporate democracy at Dell.”
He tells them that “If my past record is any indication, I believe you will be happier and richer if you join me in voting against the Michael Dell/Silver Lake deal….It is time for Michael Dell and the Dell Board to go.”
Dell stock, which closed Monday, at $12.87, off seven cents from Friday, was suggestively rising after-hours to around $12.94 as the letter circulated.
The letter in its entirety reads:
Dear Fellow Dell Stockholders:
In their Merger Agreement, Michael Dell/Silver Lake agreed with the Dell Board that they would purchase Dell if, and only if, a majority of the outstanding shares held by unaffiliated stockholders voted in favor of the transaction. In that Merger Agreement, the Dell Board agreed with Michael Dell/Silver Lake that none of the current stockholders would be allowed to own shares in the newly formed company – they would be frozen out. Further, the Dell Board agreed, wrongly in my opinion, to let Michael Dell/Silver Lake purchase the stock at what I view is a very undervalued price.
Even though the Dell Board and Michael Dell/Silver Lake agreed that a majority of the outstanding stock held by unaffiliated stockholders would be required to approve the transaction, and even made that provision of the Merger Agreement non-waivable, this required vote has not been achieved. Reports have indicated, and it is clearly the case, that Michael Dell/Silver Lake did not have sufficient stockholder support at either the July 18 or July 24 meetings.
Instead of accepting defeat with dignity, Michael Dell, in his interview with The Wall Street Journal, complained that the Merger Agreement he negotiated is unfair. This is the very Merger Agreement that Michael Dell/Silver Lake agreed to, and ironically, Michael Dell, not the stockholders, initiated this proposed transaction. Is it Michael Dell's alter ego who keeps whining about the unfairness of an agreement that he himself asked the Dell Board to accept?
I might be able to understand the actions of Michael Dell, who does not wish to lose a golden opportunity, but I cannot understand the actions of the Dell Board. The Dell Board approved a merger at what I believe to be a very undervalued price but they at least made it clear that an affirmative vote of a majority of the outstanding unaffiliated shares would be required to accept the Michael Dell/Silver Lake proposal, first at a meeting on July 18, and then again, on July 24. But reports indicate that Michael Dell/Silver Lake did not have the necessary stockholder support to approve their proposed transaction at either of the scheduled meetings. The stockholders have spoken. Additionally, millions of shares of Dell stock have been traded since the Dell Board signed the Merger Agreement which included the non-waivable stockholder approval requirement – a provision that Michael Dell now wishes to change. What about the stockholders that purchased and sold shares of Dell stock based on this provision? Why does the Dell Board continue this travesty? Why do they make a mockery of what little is left of corporate democracy at Dell?
In The Wall Street Journal interview, Michael Dell criticizes the fact that Icahn was not a stockholder when the process started. In effect, he seems to be saying that Icahn has no right to meddle with Michael Dell’s “super Dell” deal. I am also confused by Michael Dell’s statement that “after one of the most thorough processes in history the highest price that any of the parties was willing to pay was $13.65.” But what about our proposed Dell self-tender offer, which we believe has a total value to tendering stockholders of approximately $15.50 to $18 per share?* I guess Michael Dell believes a bid doesn’t count if it is made by someone who didn’t own the shares when the process began. Michael Dell should remember that it was he, not us, who put a value on the company, thereby placing it in auction, and Michael Dell and the Dell Board would do well to understand that in an auction, even a Dell auction, anyone has the right to bid.
Michael Dell spent many months crafting a merger agreement that would not only “freeze out” all unaffiliated stockholders but would also make it nearly insurmountable for anyone to make a competing bid. Michael Dell is correct when he says the Merger Agreement that he and the Dell Board agreed to is unfair. I believe it is unfair to the stockholders because of its effect on anyone who wishes to make a competing bid. Because of the inclusion of matching rights in favor of Michael Dell/Silver Lake, a competing bidder carries significant risk that their bid would just be topped by Michael Dell/Silver Lake, in which case they would have paid sizeable fees for financing commitments yet be without a deal, a situation we believe is unfair. If a competing bidder is effectively used as a stalking horse against the Michael Dell/Silver Lake transaction, it is reasonable to expect that the Merger Agreement should permit the company to enter into an arrangement with the competing bidder to receive a break-up fee to cover its financing expenses. I guess Michael Dell and his army of advisors did not count on anyone being willing to put up $3 billion of their own money in order to put forth an alternative proposal to Dell’s offer – but miracles do happen.
Conclusion Concerning The Wall Street Journal Interview Where Michael Dell Shows His True Colors
Throughout the interview Michael Dell makes statements such as “my focus throughout has been to our company’s customers and partners.” He states again “my focus first and foremost has been on the company and our employees, customers and partners.” Except in the context of having his deal pushed across the finish line, Michael Dell barely mentions the company’s stockholders. I guess he loses focus when the stockholders come into view. Michael Dell states that “we could do what we needed to do better and faster as a private company.” He has, therefore, for the good of the company, determined he must deny all stockholders the right to participate in the possible good fortunes of Dell in the future. The interview neglected to ask, or possibly Michael Dell refused to answer: “Did you ever once offer, or did the ‘independent committee’ ever ask you to offer, your stockholders a contingent value right or warrant so that they might also be able to participate in the good fortune that might result from you taking Dell private?”
Why I Am Involved
Our system of corporate governance in this country is dysfunctional. In my opinion, boards are empowered to do ridiculous and even inconceivable things to take advantage of stockholders. I have railed against this fact for years. But no one would believe, and with good reason, that I would risk $3 billion because I am outraged at the treatment of stockholders at Dell. While I am enraged, the major reason I am involved is that I believe the Michael Dell/Silver Lake transaction undervalues the company. I have spent many hours discussing Dell with experts, and there are many reasons to believe Michael Dell/Silver Lake’s proposal materially undervalues the company.
Perhaps the most important reason is Dell has a major liability that can be easily removed and that I believe would make the company a great deal of value. It is the CEO, Michael Dell. If Dell can replace Michael Dell, I think that the company would be worth far, far more. I do not say this facetiously. I fully expect to be able to identify a first-class person to run Dell if our slate of directors are elected at the annual meeting. Icahn has a history of bringing in strong new CEO’s that have gotten good results (for example, consider our activities in Biogen and Motorola, to name a few) and Icahn and Southeastern are beginning to see success in replacing top management at Chesapeake Energy. Bringing in a new CEO, unhampered by Michael Dell and the old regime, is in my opinion, both effective and necessary when attempting to turn a company around. It has often been my experience that removal of an underperforming CEO will allow a company to become more productive, more competitive and more profitable and has helped create billions in stockholder value for the companies that I have been involved with. If my past record is any indication, I believe you will be happier and richer if you join me in voting against the Michael Dell/Silver Lake deal. Finally, I can't help but note that Michael Dell has fared much better selling over 62 million shares in the $32 to $40 range over different periods in the past 10 years. Unfortunately for stockholders, he seems to be a much better market-timer than a CEO. It is time for Michael Dell and the Dell Board to go.
Sincerely,
Carl C. Icahn
Icahn Enterprises LP
* Estimates are based upon the assumptions and calculations set forth in Definitive Additional Materials that we filed with the SEC on July 12, 2013 and July 16, 2013 and reflect only an illustration of the implied value of Dell based upon those assumptions and calculations. The foregoing and the information contained in the Definitive Additional Materials are not a prediction of the specific future market value of Dell stock or any warrant. <p><a href="http://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2748688" target="_blank">read more</a></p>Tue, 30 Jul 2013 08:30:00 EDThttp://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2748688http://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2748688#feedbackIcahn Sends Dell Committee Another Letterhttp://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2748615
Carl Icahn and Southeastern Asset Management sent Dell’s special board committee an open letter first thing Monday morning urging its members, who are supposed to be watching out for the interests of Dell shareholders, not to change the rules governing the upcoming shareholder vote on whether to accept Michael Dell’s offer to buy the company.
Icahn and Southeastern claimed that Michael and private equity house Silver Lake Partners are trying to subvert the rules they had agreed in writing could not be waived by demanding that shares that aren’t voted not be counted. The rules agreed on would count abstentions as “no.” In exchange Dell and Silver Lake would raise their bid from $13.65 a share to $13.75.
According to the letter, Dell and Silver Lake “have been unable to achieve the required stockholder approval and have now offered to pay a dime for a new method of voting designed to prevent stockholders from passively dissenting on the proposed merger. This is a cynical attempt to circumvent process.” <p><a href="http://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2748615" target="_blank">read more</a></p>Mon, 29 Jul 2013 16:26:00 EDThttp://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2748615http://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2748615#feedbackDataStax Raises a Handsome $45 Millionhttp://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2747745
Three-year-old DataStax, born to commercialize Cassandra, the cloud-oriented, open source NoSQL Big Data database initially developed by Facebook for its own search purposes, and now considering an IPO, has raised a $45 million D round led by Scale Venture Partners.
The new money brings DataStax’ outside investments to a hefty $83.7 million and will be used to build the product out.
The widgetry is used by some 300 customers including a reported 20 of the Fortune 100.<p><a href="http://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2747745" target="_blank">read more</a></p>Mon, 29 Jul 2013 08:30:00 EDThttp://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2747745http://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2747745#feedbackMichael ‘Après Moi, Le Deluge’ Dell Digs Inhttp://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2748072
Dell CEO Michael Dell told the Wall Street Journal in an e-mail exchange over the weekend that he intends to stay with the company if his multibillion-dollar offer to buy the joint and take it private isn’t approved by the stockholders.
He also said that he won’t support Carl Icahn’s notion of a leverage recapitalization or Icahn’s schemes to put the company deeper in debt or sell off some its assets to pay shareholders an ostensibly higher price.
Michael reiterated that the specter of $13.75 a share that he and private equity house Silver Lake Partners dangled in front of stockholders last week was a “best and final” offer worth $24.6 billion.
It’s a dime better than the $13.65 a share Dell’s board accepted in February.
He justified the uptick on the grounds that he’s asking for a change in the way the shares are counted so any abstentions are discarded.
Currently abstentions count as “no,” a situation he claims Icahn, who was never a Dell stockholder before Michael put his buy-put offer on the table, has been “unfairly” able to use a minority of shares to block the deal that “the majority of the unaffiliated shares voting on the transaction wanted to accept.”
“That’s why we’ve now requested that the standard be changed to allow the will of the majority of the unaffiliated shares voting on the transaction to control the outcome.”
Icahn personally controls about 8% of the votes but other stockholders like Southeastern Asset Management and T Rowe Price are backing his play.
The paper suggests that Michael’s comments may be a signal to stockholders planning to vote against the buy-out that they’d better support Icahn’s proxy fight to gain control of the company too or be prepared to walk away holding stock that’s lost all of its deal-inflated luster.
The same message may be intended for the Dell board’s special committee which has until August 2 to decide to change the rules or not.
Bloomberg reported last week that the committee wants $14 a share to change the rules.
“Given where we are today,” Michael told the Journal, “I believe the challenges we would face as a public company, including a potential proxy fight, would be significant. But I am ready to fight and I am committed to doing what I believe is right for the company.”
The 10-cent price increase is coming from both Michael Dell and Silver Lake on a pro rata basis. It works out to about another $150 million.
<p><a href="http://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2748072" target="_blank">read more</a></p>Mon, 29 Jul 2013 08:00:00 EDThttp://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2748072http://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2748072#feedbackSolidFire Pushes SSD Costs Below HDD’shttp://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2747723
SolidFire, the Colorado-based all-SSD purveyor, has gotten a $31 million C round led by strategic investor Samsung, which is supplying the 960GB flash drives in its latest storage system.
The round brings SolidFire’s total outside investment to $68 million.
The widgetry, called the SF9010 and the third system out from SolidFire, is supposed to be the largest and fastest SSD storage system to hit the market – at a full-scale 100 nodes – delivering 3.4PB of effective capacity and 7.5 million IOPS in a 1U with dedup and compression.
It’s designed for large-scale public and private cloud infrastructure.
The 9010 is supposed to retire the old canard that flash is more expensive than hard disk storage by reportedly coming in at less than $3 a GB or below $1/IOP to HDD’s upwards of $4 for 60TB-3.4PB. <p><a href="http://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2747723" target="_blank">read more</a></p>Mon, 29 Jul 2013 07:30:00 EDThttp://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2747723http://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2747723#feedbackApple Ban Approacheshttp://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2747790
Apple only has 10 more days before an International Trade Commission’s import ban on the iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, iPad 2 and earlier takes effect on Monday, August 5.
That is unless the White House vetoes it, something that hasn’t happened since President Reagan over 25 years ago, or, in a pinch, like now, by the Court of Appeals.
Two months ago the ITC found that the widgets violate a Samsung standards-essential encoding patent.
In a recent filing with ITC seeking a stay, Apple said that the ban will “sweep away an entire segment of Apple’s product offering.”
There’s still pretty lively traffic in the older widgets. <p><a href="http://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2747790" target="_blank">read more</a></p>Mon, 29 Jul 2013 06:45:00 EDThttp://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2747790http://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2747790#feedbackIBM Adopts Cloud Foundryhttp://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2747692
Although IBM has its own Platform-as-a-Service, Big Blue is going to integrate the Pivotal Initiative’s open source Cloud Foundry 2.0 PaaS into its Open Cloud architecture as a quick alternative for building, testing and ultimately moving applications to the cloud.Pivotal of course is the company started recently by EMC and VMware with GE taking a piece.
IBM is joining the Cloud Foundry community to ensure it has an open governance model. Pivotal is supposed to establish an advisory board of Cloud Foundry users and vendors including IBM. Otherwise it will continue to steward the Cloud Foundry brand and preserve the trademark from direct commercial use in product names.
Pivotal expects to release a branded and supported version of Cloud Foundry in the fourth quarter.<p><a href="http://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2747692" target="_blank">read more</a></p>Fri, 26 Jul 2013 22:45:00 EDThttp://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2747692http://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2747692#feedbackBen Golub, Who Sold Gluster to Red Hat, Now Running dotCloudhttp://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2747331
Ben Golub, the former CEO of Gluster, the storage venture gone to Red Hat for $136 million, is now CEO of another promising venture-backed open source start-up, two-year-old dotCloud.
DotCloud first came to market toting a multi-language Platform-as-a-Service that proved revenue-producing but is now consumed with a project called Docker that has claimed much of its technology.
Docker is an open source engine that quickly wraps up any application and all its peculiar dependencies in a lightweight, portable, self-sufficient container that can run virtually anywhere on anybody’s infrastructure.
It’s a take on the old Java promise of write once, run anywhere. <p><a href="http://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2747331" target="_blank">read more</a></p>Fri, 26 Jul 2013 09:15:00 EDThttp://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2747331http://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2747331#feedbackAWS Goes to Court over CIA Contracthttp://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2747185
Amazon has gone to the US Court of Federal Claims in Washington, DC, to get the CIA to follow through on the four-year $600 million cloud contract it was awarded earlier this year.
IBM, which also bid for the contract, objected to Amazon getting it claiming price discrimination because the evaluation wasn’t apples to apples, so to speak, and the Government Accountability Office (GAO), which found some terms were relaxed only for Amazon, recommended that negotiations be reopened and the RFP clarified.
The CIA is supposed to decide what it’ll do early next month. Amazon is hoping for a judicial decision by September 23.
It claims the spy agency got it right based on Amazon Web Services technical superiority and best value. And wouldn’t you know, most of the complaint is under seal. Seems some information in it is under a GAO protective order. <p><a href="http://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2747185" target="_blank">read more</a></p>Fri, 26 Jul 2013 08:30:00 EDThttp://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2747185http://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2747185#feedbackProlexic Raises $30 Million Roundhttp://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2747225
Prolexic Technologies, the Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) mitigation company, has gotten a $30 million Series C round led by new investors Trident Capital and Intel Capital.
That makes $51.9 million altogether. Its existing shareholders include Kennet Partners, Camden Partners and Medina Capital.
Trident will get a board seat.
The 10-year-old company says its year-over-year revenues are up 65% and its EBITDA is positive.
The company says this year it mitigated the single largest attack in its history (167 gigabits a second), as well as the world’s most powerful attack campaign (144 million packets a second). <p><a href="http://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2747225" target="_blank">read more</a></p>Fri, 26 Jul 2013 07:45:00 EDThttp://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2747225http://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2747225#feedbackIntel Wants To Re-Architect the Data Centerhttp://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2747514
Intel wants to re-architect the data center to rapidly deliver new services efficiently and at scale through the cloud in an age of massively growing network connections and scads of real-time unstructured data, not to mention its need to ensure its own continued relevance and growth.
With no real mobile business to offset the global plunge in PC sales, down lately 11% year-over-year, Intel last week reported Q2 revenues down 5% year-over-year to $12.8 billion while returning earnings of $2 billion in line with expectations. It trimmed its Q3 expectations to $13.5 billion plus or minus $500 million. <p><a href="http://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2747514" target="_blank">read more</a></p>Thu, 25 Jul 2013 23:00:00 EDThttp://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2747514http://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2747514#feedbackMichael Dell Offers a Dime More per Share to Change Voting Ruleshttp://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2746447
The shareholder vote on whether to sell Dell to its founder Michael Dell and private equity house Silver Lake Partners, postponed last week to July 24 when the initial count wasn’t breaking Michael’s way, has been delayed again until Friday August 2.
The Dell-Silver Lake consortium has raised its bid from $13.65 a share to $13.75 a share and in exchange wants the way the votes are counted changed.
It doesn’t want shares that aren’t voted to count against them as the rules are currently treating abstentions. <p><a href="http://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2746447" target="_blank">read more</a></p>Thu, 25 Jul 2013 06:00:00 EDThttp://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2746447http://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2746447#feedbackSourcefire Goes to Cisco for $2.7 Billionhttp://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2745555
Cisco, in a diversification move, is buying Maryland-based cyber-security house Sourcefire for $76 a share in cash and retention bonuses, paying roughly a 29% premium to Monday’s closing price of $59.08.
The pair means to combine their widgetry to protect users everywhere – from any device to any cloud – before, during and after an attack.
They say that the evolution of the “Internet of Everything” is making discrete security products useless against dynamic threats and that Sourcefire can provide highly automated, continuously aware threat detection including next-generation intrusion prevention systems, next-generation firewalls and advanced malware protection. <p><a href="http://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2745555" target="_blank">read more</a></p>Wed, 24 Jul 2013 08:00:00 EDThttp://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2745555http://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2745555#feedbackJuniper CEO Quitshttp://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2745897
Juniper Networks’ CEO Kevin Johnson, recruited from Microsoft in 2008, is supposed to step down once the company finds a replacement.
The move surprised the market, which concluded it was unplanned and comes before any real money was made
Juniper’s board has formed a search committee to identify a likely candidate and hired Heidrick and Struggles, the chi-chi headhunters, to scout out its possibilities.
It’s not clear why Johnson, all of 52 and credited with architecting Juniper’s Cisco-tweaking software-defined networking (SDN) and fabric technologies, has decided to retire other than “personal priorities” and his family but he’s apparently content to let the next guy “drive the next phase of Juniper’s growth” while sales and profit forecasts currently beat estimates.
His shift has been the beneficiary of heightened mobile traffic and Juniper’s popularity with telecoms companies like Verizon, AT&T and China Mobile, which contribute 30% of the its revenues according to Bloomberg.
Board chairman Scott Kriens said in a statement, “Speaking personally, on behalf of the entire board, and for everyone at Juniper, I would like to thank Kevin for his tireless commitment and countless contributions. Over the past five years under Kevin’s leadership, Juniper has delivered innovative new products and improved operational capabilities, while the business has grown more than 50%, and we look forward to Kevin’s continuing leadership as we conduct our search for his successor. We are very pleased with our current momentum, and the health and strength of the company as we look towards a bright future in a growing industry.”
Juniper’s shares fell sharply in after-hours trading then recouped.
Its Q2 earnings, reported along with Johnson’s resignation, rose to $97.9 million, or 19 cents a share, from $57.7 million, or 11 cents, a year earlier. Profit excluding some items was 29 cents, topping analysts’ average estimate of 25 cents. Sales increased 7.2% to $1.15 billion, exceeding analysts’ average estimates of $1.09 billion. It’s forecasting results this quarter above expectations.
Juniper’s CMO Lauren Flaherty has just gone to CA Technologies in a similar capacity and in March the head of the company’s Americas partners Frank Vitagliano vamoosed to Dell.
The company expects its revenue this quarter to be between $1.14 billion and $1.18 billion, driven by strong service provider demand and the continued stabilization of its security business.
<p><a href="http://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2745897" target="_blank">read more</a></p>Wed, 24 Jul 2013 01:15:00 EDThttp://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2745897http://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2745897#feedbackOne of SAP’s Co-CEOs to Step Downhttp://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2744714
Jim Hagemann Snabe, whose contract was supposed to run through 2017, has apparently tired of his half of SAP’s CEO job and will be stepping down next May leaving the post solely to Bill McDermott, a 51-year-old American.
The plan then is for the 47-year-old Dane, who’s been responsible for SAP’s product development, to join the German company’s supervisory board (provided 25% of SAP’s shareholders vote for him).
Supposedly he wants to see more of his family. In a canned statement he said, “After more than 20 years with SAP, I have decided that it is time for me to begin the next phase of my career, closer to my family.” <p><a href="http://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2744714" target="_blank">read more</a></p>Tue, 23 Jul 2013 08:30:00 EDThttp://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2744714http://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2744714#feedbackARM Cuts New Java Deal with Oraclehttp://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2744823
ARM has cut a multi-year deal with Oracle to optimize the Java Platform Standard Edition for its 32-bit chips further and to add Java SE support to its v8 64-bit platforms expected to be used in servers.
The company said the pact will focus on delivering throughput and efficient scalability to ARM-based multi-core systems.
ARM also said, “This agreement reflects the increasing applicability of the combination of ARM and Oracle technology in server and network infrastructure. It also benefits emerging applications in the machine-to-machine, or M2M, market, such as industrial control, factory automation and single-board computers, where energy-efficient ARM technology is increasingly being deployed.”<p><a href="http://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2744823" target="_blank">read more</a></p>Tue, 23 Jul 2013 07:45:00 EDThttp://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2744823http://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2744823#feedbackIPO-Eying Ping Raises $44 Million F Roundhttp://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2742767
Ping Identity, the 11-year-old Denver company that provides secure cloud-ified single sign-on to half of the Fortune 100 and reportedly has its eye on going public next year, has raised a $44 million F round led by private equity house W Capital Partners, brought in to help with the IPO through its new board seat, and DFJ Growth, a Draper Fisher Jurvetson fund.
The money, which is more than Ping’s estimated $43 million in sales last year, is also coming from existing backers General Catalyst Partners, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Avista Partners, Triangle Peak Partners, SAP Ventures and Appian Ventures. Besides the $29 million in equity financing there’s $15 million in debt financing complements of Silicon Valley Bank. <p><a href="http://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2742767" target="_blank">read more</a></p>Mon, 22 Jul 2013 08:15:00 EDThttp://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2742767http://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2742767#feedbackTableau Takes to the Cloudhttp://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2742750
Tableau Software Thursday made its first product announcement since going public in May, wheeling out new cloud-based business intelligence widgetry called Tableau Online, a hosted version of its conventionally distributed Tableau Server.
The company, which trades under the coveted ticker symbol DATA, thinks its new Software-as-a-Service is highly disruptive both technologically and economically since it “drastically” changes both the price point and the delivery scheme usually associated with the kind of complex and sophisticated software it’s peddling. Of course, there’s an increasing number of comers in this space too.<p><a href="http://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2742750" target="_blank">read more</a></p>Mon, 22 Jul 2013 08:00:00 EDThttp://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2742750http://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2742750#feedbackBig Data Machine Learning Start-Up Gets $30.8 Millionhttp://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2742863
Five-year-old Big Data start-up Ayasdi, out only six months, has gotten B round funding worth $30.6 million led by Institutional Venture Partners (IVP) with newcomers GE Ventures and Citi Ventures kicking in as well as existing investors Khosla Ventures and Floodgate participating.
That makes at least $42.6 altogether.
IVP gets a board seat.
Ayasdi’s built what it calls an Insight Discovery platform designed for domain experts and business people who are supposed to use it to automatically derive insights from complex data and “operationalize” them to help enterprises solve difficult and expensive problems.
According to GE it can find a “needle in a haystack.”
Its approach combines advanced machine learning techniques with a branch of mathematics called Topological Data Analysis (TDA) to discover insights without coding, scripting or querying manually. <p><a href="http://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2742863" target="_blank">read more</a></p>Mon, 22 Jul 2013 07:30:00 EDThttp://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2742863http://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2742863#feedbackMicrosoft Cuts Price of Surface RT by 25%-30%http://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2743003
Microsoft Sunday slashed the price of its poorly selling ARM-based Windows-incompatible Surface RT by $150 to $349 for the 32GB model.
That’s without the cover that also functions as a touch-sensitive keyboard. With the magnet cover the price is $449. The bigger 64GB model has been cut from $599 to $449 or from $699 to $549 with the cover.
IDC estimates that Microsoft shipped about 260,000 of the 10-inch widgets in Q1, the latest numbers the researcher’s got. Together with the 750,000 more conventional Surface Pros that run Windows 8 it shipped during that quarter it got all of 2% of the worldwide tablet market of going on 50 million units.
New Surface RTs and Surface Pros are rumored. <p><a href="http://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2743003" target="_blank">read more</a></p>Mon, 22 Jul 2013 06:45:00 EDThttp://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2743003http://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2743003#feedbackEC Wants Better Remedies from Googlehttp://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2742983
After circulating Google’s concessions among its rivals, the head of the European Commission’s antitrust unit Joaquin Almunia says that its proposal won’t cut the mustard and that it’ll have to do better to quiet complaints that it’s unfairly blocking competitors’ search results.
If it can’t or won’t parlay, Google faces antitrust action and a possibly steep fine of as much as $5 billion.
The EC’s competition commissioner has said he would prefer to end the agency’s three-year investigation of Google’s search behavior with a negotiated settlement but, as he told a press conference in Brussels Wednesday, “I concluded that the proposals that Google sent to us are not enough to overcome our concerns.” <p><a href="http://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2742983" target="_blank">read more</a></p>Mon, 22 Jul 2013 06:00:00 EDThttp://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2742983http://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2742983#feedbackMicrosoft Misses Estimateshttp://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2742919
Microsoft’s little adventure into tablet land has cost it a $900 million charge to cover its slashing prices on its hard-to-move ARM-based Surface RT widgets earlier this week by as much as 30%.
But that was only part of its fiscal Q4 story of missed revenue and profit expectations Thursday.
Outside the Surface write-down, which cost seven cents a share, it reported earnings per share of only 66 cents against Wall Street projections of 75 cents on revenues of $19.9 billion, up 10% year-over-year, when the pundits were counting on $20.7 billion.
Nearly all its business units missed internal projections and its share price dropped 6.3% after-hours to $35.44. <p><a href="http://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2742919" target="_blank">read more</a></p>Mon, 22 Jul 2013 05:45:00 EDThttp://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2742919http://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2742919#feedbackDell Vote Pushed to July 24http://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2741782
Dell early Thursday morning put off the stockholders’ vote on whether it should be bought for $13.65 a share by founder Michael Dell and private equity house Silver Lake Partners after the yes votes reportedly proved narrowly short of approval. No results were officially disclosed.
The meeting at Dell headquarters in Round Rock, Texas, will reconvene on Wednesday, July 24 at 6 pm Eastern Time.
The delay buys Michael Dell and Silver Lake time to turn unvoted shares – which count as no votes – in their favor and try to persuade no votes fishing for an 11th-hour sweetener to back their play.
Reuters said they were short 150 million shares. They need about 735 million shareholder votes altogether and they need the votes they’ve got not to change against them. <p><a href="http://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2741782" target="_blank">read more</a></p>Thu, 18 Jul 2013 12:28:00 EDThttp://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2741782http://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2741782#feedbackPuppet Labs Acquires Cloudsmithhttp://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2740615
IT automation house Puppet Labs has bought fellow traveler Cloudsmith and
the two concerns are reportedly already functioning as single company.
It’s the first time Puppet has swallowed a whole company even if
Cloudsmith and its seven people are more like just a tasty little morsel.
Terms were not disclosed but Puppet got a $30 million D round from
VMware in January so no check should bounce.<p><a href="http://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2740615" target="_blank">read more</a></p>Thu, 18 Jul 2013 10:15:00 EDThttp://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2740615http://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2740615#feedbackEMC’s Buying ScaleIO to Manage Flashhttp://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2738593
EMC is buying ScaleIO and its scalable server-based Elastic Converged Storage (ECS) software.
It said it’s paying cash but not how much although the chatty Israeli business press put the price at between $200 million and $300 million.
The start-up is supposed to strength EMC’s Flash portfolio by combining ScaleIO’s software with PCIe Flash cards, such as EMC’s XtremSF, in enterprise private cloud and Service Provider environments.
The acquisition, when it closes, is bound for EMC’s Flash Product Division where its widgetry will become part of EMC’s XtremSW Suite. <p><a href="http://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2738593" target="_blank">read more</a></p>Wed, 17 Jul 2013 08:45:00 EDThttp://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2738593http://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2738593#feedbackDell May Postpone Vote: Reportshttp://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2738844
The stock market and its pundits spent Tuesday adjusting to reports that
there may not be a shareholders vote on the future of Dell after all and that
come Thursday morning the special committee of the Dell board in charge
of sorting out offers for the company may decide to postpone publicly
tabulating the results because the $24.4 billion offer put on the table by
founder Michael Dell and private equity house Silver Lake Partners has
failed to garner enough support.<p><a href="http://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2738844" target="_blank">read more</a></p>Tue, 16 Jul 2013 20:15:00 EDThttp://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2738844http://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2738844#feedbackSuspense Builds Ahead on Dell Votehttp://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2736993
With 72 hours to go before shareholders vote on Dell’s fate Thursday, T. Rowe Price, whose mutual fund controls a little over 4% of the stock, reiterated its intention to vote against the $24.4 billion privatization plan claiming it undervalues the company.
It didn’t say it would vote for the competing Icahn proposal that would leave Dell with a public “stub.”<p><a href="http://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2736993" target="_blank">read more</a></p>Tue, 16 Jul 2013 09:30:00 EDThttp://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2736993http://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2736993#feedbackHyTrust Buddies Up with CIA’s Venture Armhttp://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2736583
HyTrust, the cloud automation security company, has gotten a new funding and strategic pal in In-Q-Tel (IQT), the venture arm of the CIA and other American black ops.
HyTrust said the undisclosed investment, which is supposed to tickle its technology at scale, was a direct result of the need felt in the federal and intelligence sectors for greater controls and visibility over the management of virtualized data and cloud infrastructure.
VMware and Cisco are also invested in HyTrust for its greater controls, Role-Based Monitoring (RBM) and the so-called “two-man rule.”
HyTrust helps deliver audit, enforcement and policy controls to the administrative layer, including Secondary Approval to enforce the two-man rule on key transactions and delivers cloud control, visibility and operational readiness for mission-critical workloads run by Fortune 500s and other large organizations worldwide. <p><a href="http://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2736583" target="_blank">read more</a></p>Tue, 16 Jul 2013 08:45:00 EDThttp://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2736583http://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2736583#feedbackVMware Sells Zimbra to Telligenthttp://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2736493
VMware has sold off its partially open source Zimbra messaging and collaboration assets to Telligent, which means to merge with Zimbra to form a new software company offering what it called “the first unified social collaboration suite built for the post-PC era.” Terms were not disclosed.
Apparently the new reconstituted Zimbra will get an undisclosed amount of funding from Intel Capital, NXT Capital Venture Finance, BDCA, Hall Financial Group and VMware to combine Zimbra’s comprehensive messaging and collaboration solutions with Telligent’s social community, collaboration and analytics software.
The new company will be led by an integrated management team under Telligent CEO Patrick Brandt.<p><a href="http://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2736493" target="_blank">read more</a></p>Tue, 16 Jul 2013 08:00:00 EDThttp://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2736493http://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2736493#feedbackHP Adds Burger, Cable TV Experts & Ray Ozzie to Its Boardhttp://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2736699
In the throes of its lengthy turnaround, HP has enlarged its famous board from nine to 12 members, adding Ray Ozzie, Microsoft’s one-time replacement for Bill Gates, as well as former McDonald’s CEO James Skinner, now the chairman of the Walgreens drugstore chain, and former Liberty Media CEO Robert “Dob” Bennett, now a principal of Hilltop Investments LLC, a family investment company.
HP says it continues to look for other new directors as well as a permanent non-executive chairman to replace the defrocked Ray Lane.
Bennett will become a member of the board’s finance and investment committee and its audit committee; Skinner will join the audit, HR and compensation, and nominating and governance committees; and Ozzie, the Lotus Notes creator who left Microsoft in 2010 after a five-year stint as chief architect, will join the technology committee and the finance and investment committee. <p><a href="http://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2736699" target="_blank">read more</a></p>Tue, 16 Jul 2013 07:45:00 EDThttp://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2736699http://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2736699#feedbackAWS Cuts Prices on Dedicated Instanceshttp://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2734643
On Wednesday Amazon Web Services cut prices on its EC2 Dedicated Instances pushing back the effective date to July 1.
By its count it’s the 37th price reduction on AWS services since the infrastructure cloud’s initial launch in 2006.
Dedicated Instances have only been around since 2011 and run on hardware dedicated to a single customer account touted as good for workloads where corporate policies or industry regulations dictate physical isolation from instances run by other customers at the host hardware level.
The price reduction applies to both the dedicated per-region fee and the per-instance On-Demand and Reserved Instance fees across all supported instance types and all AWS Regions. <p><a href="http://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2734643" target="_blank">read more</a></p>Mon, 15 Jul 2013 08:30:00 EDThttp://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2734643http://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2734643#feedbackMapR Puts M7 on Amazon Elastic MapReducehttp://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2734769
Folks at MapR Technologies have made MapR M7, their Big Data platform for NoSQL and Apache Hadoop applications, available at Amazon Elastic MapReduce (EMR).
M7 is supposed to offer ease of use, dependability and greater performance for NoSQL and Hadoop.
Amazon EMR is said to make it easier and more cost-effective to deploy and operate elastic Hadoop clusters on AWS.
In a few mouse clicks or a single line of code, customers can launch a dynamically scalable M7 cluster on Amazon EMR to store or process vast amounts of data. <p><a href="http://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2734769" target="_blank">read more</a></p>Mon, 15 Jul 2013 08:30:00 EDThttp://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2734769http://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2734769#feedbackeNovance Gets Backinghttp://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2734545
Paris-based open source cloud computing company eNovance, the world’s seventh-largest contributor to the OpenStack initiative, has gotten a $7.78 million investment from Entrepreneur Venture, BNP Paribas, Oséo and its long-time backer Odyssée Venture.
The money is earmarked to support eNovance’s strategic priorities including growing its internal team – expanding its operations throughout North America – R&D, internationalization through increased access to US and Asian markets and targeted strategic acquisitions.
It figures the round confirms its business model and growth potential, putting it “squarely among the few credible players on the market.” <p><a href="http://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2734545" target="_blank">read more</a></p>Mon, 15 Jul 2013 08:15:00 EDThttp://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2734545http://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2734545#feedbackAsigra to Set New Standard in Recovery Pricinghttp://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2734812
Asigra, the Toronto backup and recovery house that set the industry standard for capacity pricing back in 1992, aims to do it again but this time make it harder for rivals like Symantec, HP, EMC and CA to follow its example without paying it a tax since it’s got a patent pending on its new pricing model.
Asigra’s brainstorm comes in response to the explosion in Big Data that’s making data recovery ridiculously expensive and unlikely to get any cheaper without a little leadership.
It claims current pricing is completely unfair and that it’s figured out a game-changing scheme it calls the Asigra Recovery License Model (RLM) that for the first time separates backup and recovery licenses and “aligns pricing with the true value of backup – data recovery.”<p><a href="http://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2734812" target="_blank">read more</a></p>Mon, 15 Jul 2013 07:00:00 EDThttp://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2734812http://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2734812#feedbackAT&T Cuts Deal To Buy Leap Wirelesshttp://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2735092
AT&T late Friday said it had agreed to buy the pre-paid cellphone carrier Leap Wireless International whose widgets are sold under the Cricket brand.
It’s supposed to pay $15 a share or roughly $1.19 billion, an 88% premium compared to Leap’s closing price of $7.98. However, Leap’s $2.8 billion debt puts the real price closer to $4 billion.
AT&T, the No 2 wireless provider in America, is supposed to get Leap’s unused and highly valuable spectrum, a piece of property that could service tens of millions of people. <p><a href="http://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2735092" target="_blank">read more</a></p>Sat, 13 Jul 2013 00:30:00 EDThttp://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2735092http://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2735092#feedbackIcahn Moves to Plan Chttp://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2733540
After three shareholder advisors backed Dell’s privatization plan, Carl Icahn, the billionaire activist shareholder who’s trying to squeeze more money out of his recently acquired ~9% position in the company, now second only to Michael Dell’s 16% holding, posted an open letter to Dell stockholders Wednesday saying they should join him in going to court to force Michael Dell to pay more than the $13.65 a share on offer.
He wants a Delaware Chancery judge to appraise the value of the company if shareholders accept the buyout offer next Thursday.
Of course shareholders would have to vote against the deal to seek an appraisal, which – if enough of them did – could derail the $24.4 billion offer precipitating a potentially nasty fight for control of the company and slamming Dell shares down to around $8 or less. <p><a href="http://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2733540" target="_blank">read more</a></p>Fri, 12 Jul 2013 08:00:00 EDThttp://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2733540http://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2733540#feedbackRackspace To Build a Cloud for CERNhttp://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2734194
CERN, the European Laboratory for Particle Physics famous for chasing after the so-called God Particle these days, has tapped Rackspace to help it build a hybrid cloud computing system so capacity can be brought to bear on big workloads as needed.<p><a href="http://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2734194" target="_blank">read more</a></p>Fri, 12 Jul 2013 02:45:00 EDThttp://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2734194http://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2734194#feedbackMicrosoft Reorgshttp://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2734162
Microsoft is reorganizing, a business it’s likely to be at for at least the next year before it or anyone else knows if it’s working although the scheme has immediately garnered a Doubting Thomas or two dubious that the restructuring will help Microsoft create more popular, saleable products any faster.
And it’s utterly unclear how Microsoft’s old-line OEMs will react in the face of possible new hardware competition from their old supplier.<p><a href="http://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2734162" target="_blank">read more</a></p>Thu, 11 Jul 2013 23:15:00 EDThttp://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2734162http://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2734162#feedbackApple Guilty of Colluding on E-Book Pricing, Judge Sayshttp://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2731716
A US federal judge Wednesday found Apple guilty of colluding with five publishers and artificially driving up the price of e-books before it entered the market with the debut of the iPad in 2010.
Apple is bound to appeal after the court fixes on a penalty next week.
The Justice Department claimed Apple let the publisher set higher prices on bestsellers and new releases as a way to offset Amazon’s low $9.99 price point on the same books. As a result the DOJ said e-book prices in general rose to $12.99-$14.99.
The publishers settled with the government ahead of trial but a resolute Apple, apparently acting on principle, refused to settle and denied any price-fixing.
It did settle with the European Commission last year without admitting any wrongdoing. <p><a href="http://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2731716" target="_blank">read more</a></p>Thu, 11 Jul 2013 09:00:00 EDThttp://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2731716http://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2731716#feedbackAWS Starting New Enterprise Unithttp://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2732027
Amazon Web Services is starting up a new unit focused on getting the Fortune 2000/mid-market segment to adopt its widgetry.
According to Network World, it has also raided VMware for the guy who’s going to be its VP of worldwide commercial sales, Mike Clayville.
Clayville has been VP of product marketing for VMware’s cloud infrastructure offerings for the last year having previously been VP of North American sales.
What’s still unclear is whether Amazon means to chase after VMware’s private cloud business while VMware tries to step on Amazon’s toes and go into the public cloud business. <p><a href="http://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2732027" target="_blank">read more</a></p>Thu, 11 Jul 2013 08:30:00 EDThttp://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2732027http://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2732027#feedbackRed Hat Goes To War Against VMwarehttp://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2732769
Red Hat put the full cavalcade of its new cloud widgetry on the market
Wednesday priced at roughly a third what it would cost to use VMware, the
private cloud rival Red Hat is out to unseat.
Red Hat announced the widgetry last month but it wasn’t quite ready for
general availability then so it withheld pricing until now.
First comes the Red Hat Enterprise Linux OpenStack Platform, which
combines Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server (good ole RHEL) with the
company’s newfangled Grizzly-based OpenStack distribution in a single
product aimed at advanced cloud users.<p><a href="http://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2732769" target="_blank">read more</a></p>Thu, 11 Jul 2013 07:45:00 EDThttp://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2732769http://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2732769#feedbackDell Gets More Support for Privatizationhttp://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2730516
No sooner had Michael Dell and Silver Lake gotten the go-ahead for their takeover scheme from Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) Monday than Glass Lewis and Egan-Jones, the two other important if not quite as influential proxy advisors, fell into line behind ISS and advised Dell shareholders to take the money and run. <p><a href="http://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2730516" target="_blank">read more</a></p>Wed, 10 Jul 2013 10:30:00 EDThttp://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2730516http://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2730516#feedbackZimory Raises $20 Millionhttp://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2730012
Zimory, a Berlin cloud management start-up, has secured $20 million in funding led by its newest investor Deutsche Boerse. Existing investors Creathor Venture, High-Tech Gruenderfonds (HTGF), IBB Beteiligungsgesellschaft (IBB), KFW and T-Venture also kicked in.
Zimory, which has previously seen $5.5 million in venture funding, means to use the new money to expand internationally and develop its vendor-neutral management platform for the cloud services marketplace further.
The recently announced cloud services marketplace, Deutsche Boerse Cloud Exchange, is the world’s first vendor-independent exchange for cloud computing capacities. It will enable IT resources to be traded like securities and energy, electronically, in seconds. <p><a href="http://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2730012" target="_blank">read more</a></p>Wed, 10 Jul 2013 08:00:00 EDThttp://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2730012http://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2730012#feedbackBig Data’s Predixion Raises $20 Million C Roundhttp://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2730213
Predixion Software, a developer of collaborative predictive analytics solutions, has raised $20 million in Series C financing.
The money is coming from two new strategic investors, Accenture and GE Ventures, as well as current investors DFJ Frontier, EMC, Miramar Venture Partners and Palomar Ventures along with new investor Frost Venture Partners.
Accenture led the financing and has entered into an agreement to co-develop new advanced analytics solutions for its clients using Predixion.
These solutions are supposed to reduce the time and cost of decision-making by extending the use of predictive analytics applications to managers in a range of business functions, allowing them to apply data-driven insights directly to their operational workflows. <p><a href="http://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2730213" target="_blank">read more</a></p>Wed, 10 Jul 2013 08:00:00 EDThttp://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2730213http://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2730213#feedbackIBM Closes on SoftLayer, Nails First Joint Accounthttp://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2775037
IBM said Monday that it had closed its estimated ~$2 billion acquisition of public cloud infrastructure house SoftLayer Technologies, which is supposed to help Big Blue compete against IaaS market leader Amazon Web Services.
The eight-year-old company has been paired with IBM's private SmartCloud unit to create a new Cloud Services Division reporting to GM Jim Comfort to pursue a share of what IDC figures could be a $105 billion market by 2016.asing these files is to inform injured veterans of the challenges they face when dealing with VAC.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 0.07in;"> </p><p><a href="http://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2775037" target="_blank">read more</a></p>Tue, 09 Jul 2013 08:00:00 EDThttp://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2775037http://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2775037#feedbackMichael Dell’s Buyout Scheme Gets ISS Backinghttp://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2728326
Michael Dell’s scheme to take the company he started in his dorm room 30 years ago private for $13.65 a share got backing Monday from Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS), the biggest of the shareholder advisory firms.
The news, which represents a sudden about-face for ISS compared to its position last week according to Bloomberg, didn’t come a moment too soon.
Last Friday word leaked out that Michael and private equity house Silver Lake Partners refused to up the original $24.4 billion bid although the board’s special committee, responsible for weighing offers for the company, recommended a sweetener. As a result Dell shares dropped to $13.03 on fears the proposal might fall apart.
Now the committee has gotten behind the ISS recommendation. <p><a href="http://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2728326" target="_blank">read more</a></p>Tue, 09 Jul 2013 07:45:00 EDThttp://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2728326http://maureenogara.sys-con.com/node/2728326#feedback